The season has gotten off to a great start! As you have news about your team, please forward it for inclusion into the newsletter. It is great to hear team updates! When you do well in a tournament, consider writing articles for Let’s Play Hockey—they are very supportive of having team information included in their publication.

Apparel needs to be ordered and turned in. If you have any questions, contact your team manager or Mark Beaubien at 763-670-5286.

Volunteering is essential in our Association. There are opportunities for volunteering throughout the year. They include the Thanksgiving tournament, Winter tournament, end of season play off tournaments, and Board positions. There are several Board of Directors positions that are up for nomination in 2005—they include President, Secretary, Boys’ Program Coordinator, and Girls’ Program Coordinator. Additional information will be provided in future newsletters.

Go Knights!

Girls Program

Hi Hockey families!

Please feel free to come to the meetings, which are held at the Mounds View City Hall in Conference Room C. Also, if you wish to have a copy of any information which is distributed at the meeting, please email or call Niki and it will be mailed to you. Upcoming dates for Board meetings (all Wednesdays):

December 15, 2004

NOTE: If you wish to be on the agenda for the meeting, please contact Brad DeKanick.

Sponsorships:

All IYHA Board Meetings are open meetings.

Absent

Guests:

Meeting called to order by Vice President Brian Johnson at 7:05 p.m. at the Mounds View City Hall Conference Room C.

Greg Ovik is here to report on the audit results. The Treasurer ties all of the activities together from the team audits. We file an income tax return, even though we are non-profit. Takes all the information the Treasurer gives him, virtually everything. Gives him the opportunity the look at anything. The requirement is there is a review of a sample. Looks for patterns and changes. Reviews all minutes to see how the Board explains what is happening to the members, and the books

In the audit process this year, he noted there was a decrease in the amount of funds from Lake Region. This was offset by the fees charged to the families.

If a request is made to see the income tax return, we need to supply it. We may charge what is needed for photocopying. The law was set up to allow for people to see what is happening with non-profits.

The tax return goes to the Attorney General. They look at the activity. They do not look at the cash in the bank—which is surprising to many people. They look program expense, general, and fund raising. They want the majority of the money in "program." Sometimes organizations get themselves into trouble because they do "fund raising" and don’t really raise any funds—just shifting money around.

IYHA spends 90-95% in program expenses. This is good. We have fund raising and we actually do well with raising the funds for our program.

If there is a concern about legitimacy of fund raising, contact Greg. He can be a resource for us. He also needs to know if we have any concerns about theft such as people writing checks to themselves.

What would happen if the Board made a decision to put funds toward an arena? They are not looking at the bottom line or the amount of cash. We would state this on the Tax Return. If we should do this, contact Greg and he can help us.

The public inspection copy is called "Federal form 990."

We set a good budget, it is clear where expenses go, and the audit is completed every year.

Will include a summary in the newsletter—cover letter would be helpful.

Guest:

New Business—Board Roundtable:

President: Brad DeKanick

Vice President: Brian Johnson

Treasurer: Jeanne Falconer

Lake Region: Jeanne Falconer

Secretary: Niki Gjere

Registration Coordinator:

285 players registered.(There are 120 at Initiation.) Team books are due for sign off on Saturday. . Newsletter deadline is November 1st which is Monday. Quick turnaround time. Website—will see if we can put the ice schedules on the website.

Twin Cities District: Tom Welty.

Twin Cities District: Tom Welty. No update. Coaches and Managers and President’s meeting on Wednesday, November 3rd at 6:00 p.m. for Girls, and 6:30 p.m. for Boys at Arlington High School.Ice Commissioner: Becky Ewing. December will be tight for ice. When more ice is available, then will give information out—Need to make sure we have ice for Initiation. Why are we having a problem with ice? Not really sure—seems that we getting more ice, almost up to last year. Becky will evaluate why we are continuing to have this issue, will work to resolve it. Ramsey County ice goes to $140 after January 1st. Everybody has tournament stuff except B Bantams. Regarding Pictures: night will stay the same no matter what company we go with. November 30th and December 2nd. There are fewer A teams in the Associations for TC District. Boys will have clinics every other Sunday with Jeff Martin. Not offered to the Girls—there is another source for Girls clinics.

Initiation Coordinator: Cheryl Mason. Meeting last week to divide teams. Was able to obtain additional hours of ice at Edison. There is moving up and moving down. Girls Coordinator: Chris Tahti. Teams have been picked. There will be two U14 at Mounds View. There are __ 12U girls playing at Irondale. Boys Coordinator: Dan Marcouiller.Introduced Jeff Martin, Head Coach for Irondale Boys Hockey. Kevin Adam is the Assistant coach. Jeff has 5 years coaching at the White Bear High School program, as an assistant. Both played at Bethel. Kevin played UHL. is here, Kevin Adam Assistant Coach. Would like to have a youth night and possibly mites playing at the games. Would like to have some of the High School youth play at the practices, assign them to teams and have them be the High School representative. Brother is the graduate assistant for Mankato—there are opportunities for youth hockey nights, cost is approximately $1500.00. Equipment Manager: Randy Bortot. No report. All of the equipment has been handed out.

Meeting convened that was closed to general membership. The meeting was held to discuss a parent complaint about tryouts. The Boys Coordinator presented information that will be presented to the player’s parents tomorrow night. Reviewed process of decision making. No additional action. Meeting adjourned at 9:10 p.m.

No update. Coaches and Managers and President’s meeting on Wednesday, November 3rd at 6:00 p.m. for Girls, and 6:30 p.m. for Boys at Arlington High School.Ice Commissioner: Becky Ewing. December will be tight for ice. When more ice is available, then will give information out—Need to make sure we have ice for Initiation. Why are we having a problem with ice? Not really sure—seems that we getting more ice, almost up to last year. Becky will evaluate why we are continuing to have this issue, will work to resolve it. Ramsey County ice goes to $140 after January 1st. Everybody has tournament stuff except B Bantams. Regarding Pictures: night will stay the same no matter what company we go with. November 30th and December 2nd. There are fewer A teams in the Associations for TC District. Boys will have clinics every other Sunday with Jeff Martin. Not offered to the Girls—there is another source for Girls clinics. . Looking for more pull-tab sites. Still need one more Irondale person on the Lake Region board.. Still need to collect $5.00 for families that did not pay the Lake Region fee. Need to clarify the numbers of hours that we have used, received Ramsey County Ice Bill. Treasurer’s report reviewed. Refunds: We cannot refund the USA Hockey and Minnesota Hockey fee; cannot refund the $5.00 Lake Region fee, and the ice that has been used. Jeanne and Chris will work together to figure out the refunds. . Last night we conducted the joint Manager / Treasurer meeting. Went very well. More pressing is the request and need for volunteers. We need advertisements. Deadline for the ads is the end of this week. The printer is Jerry from Action Press. Brian will send the information to the Team Managers and the Board Members. Met with Dean from Mounds View—he has a new person that is working to learn the Mounds View side of the Tournament; we need to do the same thing for Irondale. (Dean will be doing the tournament for a few more years.) Additional note: great to see the Mini-Mites.. Absent. No report. Lonnie Isaacson. Has recently moved to New Brighton. Son is a Pee Wee. They will donate two televisions for our raffle. We need to support Champp’s in New Brighton. There is a position available for selling pull tabs at Champps. John Donovan, Lonnie Isaacson, John Dalnes.: Brad DeKanick. Present: Brian Johnson, Niki Gjere, Jeanne Falconer, Dan Marcouiller, Chris Tahti, Cheryl Mason, Randy Bortot, Tom Welty, Pat O’Connor, Becky Ewing.

There have been several teams that have sponsors for their teams. These are listed below. This part of the newsletter will continue throughout the rest of the IYHA season. Please notify Niki Gjere of any additions or corrections. (Please forward information about websites and addresses, etc.) Many thanks to our sponsors!

**Champp’s New Brighton**

**New Brighton Sportsmen’s Club**

Once again, many, many thanks to our sponsors!

Please support them! When you see them, please tell them you are from Irondale Youth Hockey!

IYHA:

I would like to take time and thank all of our parents and guardians who have diligently worked with me to get all our players registered properly with USA Hockey. The t's must be crossed and the i's dotted before the process is complete. To date, we have @ 285 players that have been registered and this is par with last year at this time. I would like to wish everyone a fun and exciting season of "let's play hockey"!!!

Pat O'Connor, IYHA Registration Coordinator

Here we are on the backside of a 6-month ordeal where we were up in the air regarding numbers, who was playing high school, where our older athletes will play, etc. Now that we are here, we can get down to the business of playing hockey.

Looking beyond this season, we have nothing but the same to look forward to again prior to next season. And when we get to the point of speculating and pondering again, let’s all remember that answers to where we play and how many we’ll have are not easily answered due to the high school variable.

If you are in the age group that will have to make decisions next season, I urge you to take your time making your decision and look at all options thoroughly. I recommend you talk with Randy Bortot - Lexi was the only IYHA player to go through the TC tryout process for U14 and be placed on a team. Without speaking for him, he will likely tell you that the process was fair and the team Lexi was placed on would have been a good place for her to play had she not made the Irondale High School team.

Please make welcome Demi DeYoung, Ashley Heppner, and Kelsey Barnier from MV Youth Hockey who have joined our U12A team! MV has provided a place to play for IYHA’s Sara Law and Bethany Johnson on their U14 team. Thanks to all who were patient and able to make these accommodations in the best interests of all athletes.

Finally, regardless of which side of the U14 – U12 – High School debate you were on, all of these teams are on the ice and ready to play. The time for debate is over; it is time for us to show respect and support for the efforts of the athletes. But more important, let’s sit back and enjoy the game of hockey!

And, as always, our Girls program is growing. We will increase our visibility in the community and make this THE athletic program in which to participate! Please help us spread the word at school and in your neighborhoods.

To all the players, coaches and parents—we are about to take the next step for the 2004/05 season. The players worked very hard during the Boys and Girls warm-ups. If the keep up the intensity that they have shown over the last
few weeks, hopefully that will start to pay dividends during the season. Jeff Martin and Kevin Adams (Boys HS Coaches) worked with the boys and I worked with the Girls program over the past few weeks.

I got the opportunity to see and talk a lot of players, parents and coaches on their hopes for a positive year for the kids. The numbers are a great reason to be excited already. Bantams 35+, Peewees 40+, Squirts 44+. Girls U12
13+, U10 25+ with another 13-15 in the Initiation Program. Speaking of the Initiation Program over a 120+ kids again. Great jobs one and all, recruiting players and a new set of coaches by the Coordinators.

In the next week or so, we will be rolling out HEP (Hockey Education Program). It is a 2 pronged program that measures players in our Association against all players in the US and Canada. It will be done through standardized
testing in the beginning and at the end of the season.

The second part is a Fair Play point that will hopefully retain players, coaches and referees by awarding teams points in the standings for good sportsmanship. Teams will be allowed only so many penalties to retain their part of
the point. Coaches must work with the officials to retain their part of the point. Parents must refrain themselves from verbally/physically abusing coaches, players and the referees before, during and after the game. If all are
done, then the team will receive a Fair Play point that will count in the standings. It may make a difference of moving up or down in the standings and seedings in regions.

Excellent job by Tadd Toumie and all the evaluators and players that worked so hard to do the best for the all the kids. There were plenty of smiles to go around.

To the players, if you want to be successful this or any other year, you need to keep up the intensity you exhibited during the tryouts process.